HOUSTON — It was a day late when the Rockets got their apology of sorts with the NBA’s admission that officials were incorrect in calling a foul on Dwight Howard with 10.8 seconds left in overtime of Game 1. In fact, the foul should have been called on the Blazers’ Joel Freeland and Howard sent to the line for two free throws.

Of course, that an $5 will get the Rockets a venti coffee at Starbucks.

“I guess we need to go play the 10 seconds back,” Howard said with a grin following Tuesday’s practice. “We can’t do nothing about it now. It doesn’t matter. We just got to win Game 2.”

Teammate Chandler Parsons nodded his head.

“It’s obvious,” he said. “But it doesn’t do anything for us now that they’ve said that. At least they’ve owned up to it. It still doesn’t change the fact that we lost the game or are down 0-1.

“I don’t care either way. It almost makes me more mad they announced it knowing that it was wrong. One call, one play, it doesn’t determine the outcome of the game. We got to just play better and not let it get to that point.”

19 Comments

refs in game 3 and 4 of blazers and rockets look like they were well paid and not by the nba. blazers had so many horrible and obvious calls against them that there should be an option for the coach to throw a challenge flag like the nfl. players on the teams should win the games, not refs making side deals or playing favorites.

Hilarious to see Blazers fans making excuses and making it seems like the foul on Dwight was fair oh please refs were biased and that ridiculous call on Howard says it all. Blazer fans whines about the refs being paid to go against them all season every time they lost a game and now they sided with the refs even thou the nba admitted to their mistake? Rockets aren’t worried cause they will win the series and that one win would be Portlands only win. Aldridge was lucky everything went his way, hitting 3 point two times, that will never happen again the rest of this series and Lillard? That 31 point game is his last 30+ points in this series so Blazers fans enjoy your one time win even thou the ref gift wrap that win for y’all it’s okay thou cause Houston will advance to the next round.

Yeah, it was a bad call. But so was Howard giving Lopez a nutshot elbow no call that resulted in his ejection, and a bit earlier Portland tied up Garcia, he travelled, and was also tied up but the refs ignored these things and gave him a timeout call.

Refs were horrible, but realize both sides got screwed. Dont think this one was taken away from you. Houston lost this. They had the lead most of the game, and failed.

Yeah, the Blazers definitely didn’t win game 2 in Houston and they aren’t going back to the City of Roses with a 2-0 lead. Thanks for the win man, doesn’t seen like your Rockets need them… Cause y’all are winning this series. Houston you got a problem.

Exactly! It’s stupid and there’s no point on admitting to their mistakes cause it won’t change the fact that the Blazers won it by being dirty. That kid will be closely watched by the refs the rest of this series and Portland will not again shot 15 free throws in the first half and ZERO free throws for the Rockets. Hilarious that Blazers fans thinks Rox fans whines? Blazer fans and Blazers players whines bout refs all season long. Now y’all should never whine anymore cause ref gave y’all that win in game one.

Hilarious that Howard is once again not owning up to a loss. First he blames his teammates, now the refs. Anyone who watched this game could see the refs were trying to gift wrap it for the Rockets. Howard should have been ejected for body slamming Lopez then throwing the ball at him like a punk in the 2nd quarter

Wow a lot of haters on here. It’s nice the nba admitted there mistake but what about the 1000 other terrible calls. The playoffs have been terribly officiated this year. Way to many fouls. I think we have had more guys foul out so far this year then the entire last year playoffs. Come on nba let the guys play. And by the way, the officiating isn’t biased because bad calls are both ways. But please no more touch foul. It makes the fame really boring to watch.

Great comments ‘TheWahmbulance’ I agree with you 100%! Thing is that all the teams in the NBA know that if they whine and cry all game long then things will suddenly and inexplicably turn their way. Harden repeatedly throws himself into his defenders and that is supposedly a foul on the defense? The officials are basically saying that you cant play defense on that player. I agree when the defender swipes at the ball that it should be a foul if they contact his arms, but when they stand their ground and hold their arms as strait up as possible, that is a no call. The officiating in game 1 baffled me. It seemed at times Houston was getting calls for phantom fouls and then at other times Portland was committing phantom fouls. I feel bad for the players because it must be very difficult to figure out what is being called and what isn’t.

Yes it was a bad call, but did the league also review Lopez’s 6th foul? That was just as bad a call if not worse since there was zero contact between players. Seems to me that both bad calls off set eachother, so the Rockets should stop whining.

The only thing that foul call would have done was give Dwight a chance to throw up a couple more bricks from the line. He probably committed a dozen fouls over the course of the game, and only by the grace of biased officiating towards stars was he still in the game in OT.

What gives with acknowledging one bad call? Is the league saying that Lopez actually committed his sixth foul as he ran backwards away from a stumbling, bumbling, travelling Howard? Are they saying that if one player takes a dirty elbow to the gut, it is the elbow-ee and not the elbow-er that deserves the technical? Dwight is allowed to goal-tend in crucial moments because he is superman? Starting from the opening jump ball when Howard tipped it out and the officials inexplicably called for a re-toss the reffing crew did a wonderful job of ruining this game for both teams. The refs gave both teams plenty to be upset about in that game. They ought not to officiate any more post season games. Shame on the league for giving just one of the teams a feeling of justification for being upset when both teams endured awful calls.

Well said. Why just the one call when there were three or four crucial, terrible calls against both teams? This announcement should have Blazers fans worried. Just got a peak at the man behind the curtain.